WOMEN'S FORUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 220, 16 September 1932, Page 9

WOMEN'S FORUM.

WHAT OUR GIRLS EAT. It would be a mistake to imagine that the average Australian girl regulates her diet with strict reference to her figure (writes the "Star's" Sydney I correspondent). Quite recently an article ( in a Sydney paper —written as it happens, by a New Zealand girl —assert?, that "the average girl eats enough to keep an ostrich in its customary health and strength." The writer claims to have observed the lunch hour liabite of the Sydney business girl in various restaurants and cafeterias, and she warns men that henceforth, if they hear a girl say "I haven't eaten a thing to-day," they must not believe a word of it. In one well-known cafe file saw "a slim young thing with a clear complexion and perfect teeth" carrying a tray adorned with the following items: Plate of celery eoup; braised rabbit, with three vegetables; two pieces of pineapple; roll and butter, pot of coffee; bowl of fruit salad; cream cake. I don't know whether the authoress waited till the meal ended, but apparently the "slim young thing" survived the ordeal. There is a my?teriou!= phrase frequently heard in offices where stenographers are together between 12 and one o'clock—"sending the Doy out. for some sandwiches"—and this is tho critic's translation of it: "Get us a meat pie each, and two sandwiches each—l'll have sausage in mine—and a couple of little cakes efich —the ones ■ with the butter scotch icing; and a couple of those little apple pies, if they have any fresh; and an apple each. Oh! and bring me a eixpenny bag of honeycomb." As the authoress truly observes, "this would stagger the average man lunching on sausage, mash and tea." But how much of it is truth and how much libel?

VOGUE FOR FLOWERS. It has recently been the fashion to wear fresh flowers as necklaces, bracelets and belts with one's evening frock, and at some of the big dances held in Auckland during the season a number of beautiful leis have made an attractive accompaniment to the dance frock. The vogue has now gone a stage further, and of la to women abroad have been seen wearing posies of real flowers on their satin shoes, rosebuds and torget-me-nots being the most popular. At one party a smart girl had outlined the armholes of her white frock with fresh green leaves, and had a belt to match. The effect was fresh, cool and considerably cheaper, of course, than exotic flowers would have been. Altogether flowers are becoming as popular as they were in Victorian days, and many young things, like their grandmothers, aie pro" claiming that they have a favourite flower. Mrs. Bernard Shaw, by the way, though ehe claims that she and the Countess of Warwick are the only real Edwardians, as they do the intellectual rebellion against Victorianism, has always, even in her most militant days, had a favourite flower. It is the lily of the valley, and whenever, it is available Mr. Shaw has a box of llie flowers sent to his wife from wherever he may be. Often he is with her, but the box arrives just the same.